Queen Sofia is the only one of the royal family who has an assigned task this Easter. Last night, as is usual every year, he presided, in the cathedral of Palma, at the annual Easter concert for the benefit of Projecte Home Balears, an organization that treats drug addicts, and for Maundy Thursday he is expected, if the weather his presence in Málaga during the transfer, on the shoulders of legionnaires, of the Christ of Mena does not prevent it. The Kings and their daughters, Eleonor and Sofia, are expected to make a joint appearance somewhere, yet to be determined, although this possibility cannot be confirmed or ruled out, since Zarzuela does not report on their private activities .
The King’s mother traveled to Mallorca last weekend to, as is her custom, spend a few days in Marivent, accompanied by her sister, Princess Irene of Greece. Queen Sofia’s loyalty to the island has not changed in the last 50 years, which is why on February 29 she received the Gold Medal of the Balearic Islands, but for some years she has been the only tenant of Marivent during Holy Week
Gone are the days when the rest of the royal family chose the Balearic residence to enjoy the Holy Week holidays that closed on Easter Sunday with their attendance at mass in Palma Cathedral. For some years now, the Kings and their daughters, Eleonor and Sofia, have opted for other destinations, although sometimes, after a private holiday, they traveled to Mallorca on Holy Saturday to accompany Queen Sofia to the mass of the next day and provide a familiar image. The King, both last year and the year before, traveled alone to Mallorca at the beginning of Holy Week to accompany his mother.
This year, moreover, the Kings have fewer days to share with their daughters, since Princess Eleonor, like the rest of the cadets of the Zaragoza Academy, has no more days off than those from March 28 to April 4th, and baby Sofia also finishes her classes at Atlantic College in Wales on the 28th, although she is not due to join until April 7th. The Kings will not have an official schedule again until April 2.
Last year, the Kings and their daughters went, unannounced, to witness, in the Madrid town of Chinchón, a representation of a living Stations of the Cross in which around two hundred residents of the town participate.
Every year, from different places that hold processions or other events linked to Holy Week, invitations are made to the royal family. The King, like Princess Eleonor and Infanta Sofia, is a practicing Catholic, while the Queen, who, when the official occasion requires it, goes to religious events, does not participate in the liturgy.
One of the invitations received at the Casa del Rey came from the Congregation of the Christ of Mena, or Christ of the Good Death of Málaga so that, as the then Prince Felipe did, in 1996, there would be the presence of a member again of the royal family in one of the most emblematic religious manifestations of Holy Week. Finally, it will be Queen Sofia who, on Thursday morning, will witness the ceremony of transferring Jesus crucified, on the shoulders of legionnaires, from the church of Sant Domènec de Málaga to the processional throne, to the sounds of the hymn Novio de the death
